Shloka 43

Cakravyūha-saṃkalpaḥ, Saṃśaptaka-āhvānaṃ, Saubhadra-vikrīḍitam

Drona Parva, Adhyāya 32

Devanagari script

ताञ्छरौघान्‌ महावर्तान्‌ शोणितोदान्‌ महाह्ददान्‌

Transliteration

tāñ charaughān mahāvartān śoṇitodān mahāhradān

Translation

సంజయుడు పలికెను—ఆ బాణప్రవాహాలు మహా భ్రమరాలవలె తిరుగుతూ, రక్తజలాలతో నిండిన మహా సరస్సులవలె అయ్యెను।

Word by Word

• तान्: those
• तान्: Karma
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: तद्
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

• शरौघान्: masses/streams of arrows
• शरौघान्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: शर-ओघ
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

• महावर्तान्: having great whirlpools/eddies
• महावर्तान्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: महावर्त
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

• शोणितोदान्: whose water is blood / blood-watered
• शोणितोदान्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: शोणित-उद
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

• महाह्रदान्: great lakes/pools
• महाह्रदान्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: महाह्रद
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• arrows
• blood
• lakes/deep pools

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores the catastrophic moral cost of war: martial prowess manifests as overwhelming violence, and the battlefield is poetically recast as a landscape of blood—inviting reflection on the human suffering that accompanies adharma-driven conflict.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes the battle’s intensity through a metaphor: volleys of arrows surge like swirling currents, and the resulting carnage makes the scene resemble vast lakes filled with blood.